Eye on 1 km concrete road as first prize, Assam villages vie for cleanest tag
The Hindu
The contest across Khumtai Assembly constituency is an initiative of local BJP legislator Mrinal Saikia
A race for the top prize, a 1 km concrete road, saw more than two lakh people in an eastern Assam Assembly constituency scrubbing, sweeping, raking, washing and wiping for about a fortnight since February 17.
Villages in eastern Assam generally maintain a level of cleanliness but there were certain habits that Mrinal Saikia, Khumtai constituency’s BJP legislator, wanted the residents to kick. These included keeping the facades of the houses or public structures clean and the backyard littered.
So, he decided to organise an inter-village and inter-tea garden competition for a clean Khumtai.
The constituency, in Golaghat district, is about 260 km east of Guwahati.
“The constituency has a total of 148 villages and 24 tea estates. I planned the contest, perhaps the first of its kind in India involving an entire constituency, to make the people value cleanliness,” Mr. Saikia told The Hindu on Monday.
“Some of these villages were already clean barring a few spots here and there. We hope the contest encouraged the other villages to do better,” he said.
The contest was organised from February 17 to March 6 with the villages given 12 days to clean up to be in the reckoning for the top prize – a 1 km concrete road from the local MLA fund. Four other prizes were announced for the villages ranging from development schemes worth ₹10 lakh to ₹3 lakh.
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